We’re glad that President Donald Trump is in Las Vegas today to meet with victims of the mass shooting that took place on Sunday night. While most members of Congress have reacted to the shooting by offering thoughts and prayers, and not much else, we hope that the president takes the opportunity to reconsider his support for the gun lobby’s dangerous policy agenda.
Here are three questions for President Donald Trump:
- During the shooting on Sunday night, people fled the scene and took cover when they heard the sound of gunshots. Do you support the current federal law that keeps people with dangerous histories from being able to get silencers that distort the sound of a gun?
- Earlier this year, your administration rolled back a federal rule that kept guns out of the hands of people with severe mental illness. Shouldn’t we be strengthening laws that keep guns out of the hands of the dangerously mentally ill, rather than removing prohibiting mental health records from the gun background check system?
- After the Sandy Hook shooting, a bipartisan group of senators proposed a compromise background checks bill that nearly passed the Senate. Do you believe every gun sale should require a criminal background check, and would you sign that bill into law?
The gun lobby spent more than $50 million to elect Donald Trump and NRA allies in Congress. In exchange, NRA-backed members of Congress have introduced legislation to enact the NRA’s top legislative priorities: a bill to gut silencer safety laws, which was previously expected to be voted on in the House this week, and “Concealed Carry Reciprocity” legislation that would override state’s gun laws and make our communities less safe.
Trump’s own administration has also taken steps to weaken our gun laws. Since February, the Trump administration has signed a law repealing the Social Security Administration rule on record submission to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) for disability recipients prohibited from possessing guns due to significant mental illness, weakening the background check system and narrowed the definition of who is a fugitive in our country, a little-noticed policy change that allows more people on the run to get their hands on guns, among other initiatives loosening gun rules.
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